Waterkeeper Updates

This blog was written by John Amos at SkyTruth. SkyTruth is a founding member of the Gulf Monitoring Consortium along with SouthWings and Waterkeeper Alliance. On April 19, 2011, SkyTruth, SouthWings, and Waterkeeper Alliance launched the Gulf Monitoring Consortium: an innovative partnership that is systematically monitoring oil pollution in the Gulf of Mexico with satellite images and mapping, aerial reconnaissance and photography, and on-the-water observation and sampling.

This blog was written by Paul Orr, the Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper. What Paul experienced yesterday isn't directly related to the BP oil disaster, but it does explain the need for full restoration of the Gulf Coast. We hear at every restoration meeting that full restoration must take in account that the Gulf Coast has been been an industry dumping ground for decades. Restoration must be about creating sustainable and resilient communities, not just repairing the damage made by one oil disaster.

Community members throughout the Gulf Coast are picking up their phones today to make calls into their Representative and Senate officials offices. The purpose of today's call in action is to support legislation that dedicates at least 80% of the Clean Water Act penalities resulting from the BP oil disaster to the Gulf Coast. Last Thursday the first piece of legislation with this objective was introduced into Congress.

On July 18 2010 it was announced that BP and the government were confident that the wellhead on the Macondo well had been capped three days earlier. This day was met with hesitant relief. One year later, the great urgency with which the media and industry and political leaders once spoke about ending the BP oil disaster is over, though the oil is not gone and our Gulf Coast has not been restored.

Late yesterday the US House of Representatives passed a measure called HR 2018 Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. Those of us on the frontline of protecting our waterways call it “The Dirty Water Act” because it would effectively gut the current Clean Water Act. But yesterday enough of our political leaders said that’s not a problem.